Grand River Transit

[timio]

I notice that northbound GRT traffic will now travel on the west side of Ring Road.

[goggolor]

So the Fall schedules for the 200 iXpress don't include a Grand River Hospital stop, even though the work on King between Union and Allen that started end of July was only supposed to take 8 weeks. Or was that 8 weeks for the intersection to be closed and the actual street will be unavailable for longer? I don't get why GRT doesn't run iXpress on the same detour route as the #7 - if losing the iXpress is inconvenient for me, I can't imagine what it's like for less able-bodied people who need to get to the hospital frequently.

[BuildingScout]

I don't get why GRT doesn't run iXpress on the same detour route as the #7 - if losing the iXpress is inconvenient for me, I can't imagine what it's like for less able-bodied people who need to get to the hospital frequently.

I think the idea is to have two different alternatives for people who used to travel on the main King route. Depending on where you live one of the two detours shouldn't be much worse than what you used to take.

[MidTowner]

Or was that 8 weeks for the intersection to be closed and the actual street will be unavailable for longer?

King is still closed now, and when I asked in the Ion thread when it might reopen, taylortbb's estimate was later this year. I really hope that the iXpress then returns to King between Wellington and Union to service the hospital. I think your concerns about people who need to make frequent trips to the hospital are sound.

It doesn't matter whether iXpress runs on Weber or Park, since it currently has no stops between Water and Erb, a long distance. I still don't understand why GRT didn't have a stop somewhere on Weber. But I really hope hospital service is resumed as soon as King is passable.

[goggolor]

I don't get why GRT doesn't run iXpress on the same detour route as the #7 - if losing the iXpress is inconvenient for me, I can't imagine what it's like for less able-bodied people who need to get to the hospital frequently.

I think the idea is to have two different alternatives for people who used to travel on the main King route. Depending on where you live one of the two detours shouldn't be much worse than what you used to take.

That explanation might make sense if the 200 iXpress stopped anywhere between Charles St Terminal and Bridgeport (like stops at Weber & Victoria, Weber & Union, etc). But it doesn't, so the only benefit of running the 200 down Weber and skipping intermediate stops is speed. Saving a few minutes on the route doesn't seem worth skipping both the GRH and Uptown stops, which are highly used especially in the fall semester.

The Union-Allen closure was communicated as an 8-week outage, not as an indefinite outage that was taking service away for the rest of the year. Although given how work on Caroline has progressed, we have to take the road outage schedules with a heaping tablespoon of salt (the RideION site says that King will be temporarily paved if work is still ongoing by the winter... but they said the same thing about Caroline *last* winter, and that never happened).

[insider]

Has anyone noticed that the 200 is now stopping at King/Victoria in front of School of Pharmacy? I've seen it twice stopping there going southbound, but there's no sign posted anywhere about it... not sure if the driver was just being nice to someone who requested it though.

[Markster]

Yeah, the iXpress I was on took Joseph to Victoria, and Victoria across to Weber.  I don't know what's up with that.

Let's find out what's up with that.
http://www.grt.ca/en/routesschedules/detours.asp

Charles Street at Water Street - CLOSED
Duration: Thursday, August 6 to Sunday, September 13 (end of service)
Reason: ION Construction Work

Route 6 Outbound to Conestoga Mall Terminal: Buses will be travelling on Gaukel St to, R on Joseph St, R on Victoria St, L on Weber St, and resume regular routing.
Temporary Stop Location Joseph/Water (#5010)
Victoria/#77/75 Victoria (TEMP)
Closed Stops; 5005, 3580

Route 6 Inbound to Charles Street Transit Terminal: Buses will be travelling on Weber St to, R on Victoria St, L on Joseph St, to Terminal.
Temporary Stop Location Victoria/Duke (TEMP)
Joseph/Water (#5011)
Closed Stops: 2500, 5006

Route 200 Outbound to Conestoga Mall Terminal: Buses will be travelling on Gaukel St to, R on Joseph St, R on Victoria St, L on Weber St, and resume regular routing.
Temporary Stop Location Joseph/Water (#5010)
Closed Stop: 5005

Route 200 Inbound to Ainslie Street Transit Terminal: Buses will be travelling on Weber St to, R on Victoria St, L on Joseph St, to Terminal.
Temporary Stop Location Joseph/Water (#5011)
Closed Stop: 5006

Not sure whose idea it was for the temp stop to be at Joseph/Water, instead of, I don't know, putting it back at King/Victoria.

[Viewfromthe42]

Has anyone noticed that the 200 is now stopping at King/Victoria in front of School of Pharmacy? I've seen it twice stopping there going southbound, but there's no sign posted anywhere about it... not sure if the driver was just being nice to someone who requested it though.

Useful to know, but it's not an official stop. Anything farther from Charles and closer to the original stop would be great. Does anyone know why the bus stopped going from Weber to Water?

[MidTowner]

Not sure whose idea it was for the temp stop to be at Joseph/Water, instead of, I don't know, putting it back at King/Victoria.

Ugh. That is terrible, among the worst so far. It's passing by King and Victoria. King and Victoria is a major trip generator. Because it is, it's where this route used to stop. Instead, they stop at Joseph and Water. What's there? If I recall correctly, that cool convenience store, and a parking lot. Nothing. I do not even believe it is any closer to the previous temporary stop at King and Water than King and Victoria would be.

[Viewfromthe42]

They have said repeatedly that they want to have consistent detours and consistent alternate stops. King and Victoria will be closed for some amount of time to allow any final grade issues to be dealt with, and for the split tracks to be placed there. Depending on staging, Charles and Francis/Water may be out of commission at the same time. Perhaps they are counting on being able to make it from the southwest of the tracks to the northeast, and on to Weber (and the reverse) by at least one of those three cross-streets, and so the long-term, not-to-be-moved stop they can work from is at Water.

[MidTowner]

I agree with what you said above that "anything further from Charles and closer to the original stop would be great." Joseph/Water is further from the original stop, and closer to Charles. Originally, Weber/Victoria would have been the more logical spot for the replacement to the King/Victoria stop than King/Water- moving it two block towards the terminal makes that even more true.

[insider]

Lots of comments yet nobody responded my question I got off the 200 at King/Victoria today... and someone else had requested the stop but I don't think he asked the bus driver specifically. Weird.

[TMKM94]

I have an idea for GRT once the ion is running. GRT should rename there buses ion bus and ion bus express or ibus and ibus express to group all the modes together.

[Waterlooer]

Does anyone know where the 200 will detour when Benton/Charles is closed?

[KevinL]

Does anyone know where the 200 will detour when Benton/Charles is closed?

An excellent question, given MANY other routes use the intersection (both normally and on detour) and there's no obvious detour given the current state of the roads in the area.